Sordid

After hearing "the smoking gun" laid uneasily to rest by Ronnie the other evening, my tongue-in-cheek wife now understands the whole sordid affair. She has resurrected an even older bromide--"I didn't think the gun was loaded." WALLY RICHARD Chatsworth

If it is true that state Sen. Leland Yee consorted with criminals and did them political favors in return for campaign cash, it is indeed "sickening," as Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg said. But this newest scandal, along with the indictment of Sen. Ronald S. Calderon on bribery and corruption charges in February, is merely an extreme example of the long-standing and pervasive pay-to-play culture that permeates the Capitol. Yee, a San Francisco Democrat, was swept up in an FBI sting targeting a gangster known as "Shrimp Boy" and faces federal charges related to public corruption and conspiracy to illegally import firearms.

With all the secretive double-dealings, illicit love affairs and murders, attempted murders and other sordid misdoings, the NBC miniseries should have been titled "Ignoble House." However, the ending was more uplifting, as it showed there was indeed even "honor among thieves." Kenneth L. Zimmerman, Cypress

Baseball was drained of its charm and innocence long ago, when it went from being a kids' game to the multibillion-dollar enterprise we know as Baseball Inc. Now the sad spectacle involving Alex Rodriguez and his former drug dealer, Tony Bosch, is robbing the sport of what remains of its heart and soul. Actually "sport" may no longer be the right word, since it implies there is a winner and a loser. Clearly there are no winners in a process that involves liars, drug cheats, death threats, clandestine payments, blood drawn in the bathroom stall of a South Florida nightclub and more shady characters than an episode of "The Sopranos.

"Libraries Shelve Old Image" (May 12) tells the story of a Los Angeles Public Library with its ducks in order. Here in San Francisco, where we are struggling to save 1 million books and periodicals stranded in tentative storage in the wake of the ex-chief librarian's sordid vision of the future, it's heartening to read about Los Angeles' success. Wish I was there. WALTER BILLER San Francisco

On Dec. 27, The Times reported that a growing proportion of the Americans standing in soup kitchen lines were "people who are working, playing by the rules, trying to hold their families together." Another article on the same day recounted the sordid history of Jim Waldorf, a man who became a multimillionaire by legally selling cheap murder weapons. He, too, for the most part, played by the rules. Clearly, the time has come to change the rules. MARVIN A. GLUCK Topanga

Although I feel compassion for her parents and sympathy for her, I am sick and tired of this obsession over Chandra Levy's disappearance. Surely there are more deserving missing people to concentrate on than a 24-year-old woman who had an affair with a powerful middle-aged married man. This story encompasses all that is sordid and sick in our society: The TV news people dragging this story out and making it front-page news; a Bible-thumping adulterer;...

Quayle's self-serving and opportunistic efforts to minimize his military obligation insulted the courageous legacy of those thousands of principled draft resisters who jeopardized their citizenship and personal freedom, their future careers, and their families' names by forthrightly refusing participation in an immoral and illegal war. What is more, given that Republican candidate's ongoing sordid call to arms for a new generation, coupled with his...

I was astonished by Rosenberg's column. Instead of welcoming the refreshing experience of hearing a spade called a spade, he attempts to discredit this unique and valuable contribution to public information. Rosenberg has the idiocy to call for balance ! A hundred honest programs by Moyers could never hope to balance the flood of lies we are deluged with. North, Poindexter, Secord, Reagan, Casey, Shultz and countless other sordid creatures have unlimited opportunities to disseminate their disinformation.

Re "Senate Set to Approve Budget Deal," July 24: You mean to tell me that billions will be financed by health cuts against the poor and not one extra penny will be contributed by any of this state's millionaires? These sordid scoundrels should all be recalled. Edward Chavez Anaheim "The Democrats who plotted political gain from the crisis owe Californians an apology" ("Indecent Exposure," editorial, July 23). Both the Democrats and Republicans, who were sent to Sacramento to do their jobs in the best interests of their constituencies, owe their constituents much more than an apology.

For years, the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles fought to keep secret its confidential files concerning pedophile priests. Hundreds of sex abuse victims hoping for a full accounting of what church leaders knew about the growing scandal and what they did to stop it were rebuffed time and again. But the cover-up is finally coming to an end. On Monday, a series of memos and letters filed in a civil case confirmed that Cardinal Roger M. Mahony and other church leaders plotted to shield pedophile priests rather than turn them over to police and prosecutors.

April 28, 2012 | By J. Michael Kennedy, Special to the Los Angeles Times

ISTANBUL, Turkey - The Turks have a blockbuster on their hands. It's called "Fetih 1453," as in the year the Turks conquered the Byzantine capital of Constantinople - now the sprawling city of Istanbul. This epic, with 16,000 extras, sword fights, tons of blood and turbans galore, has broken all film records in Turkey, not only in how much it cost to make ($17 million) - but also the box office take, more than double the investment and counting. Millions have seen the film since it opened in February - the premiere of which was an afternoon matinee that began at 14:53 p.m. in theaters around the country (the film opened Friday in Los Angeles)

The question heading into the historic parliamentary hearing in London was whether Rupert Murdoch and his son James could pull off the balancing act of being contrite as well as in control. For the elder Murdoch, a strong performance was critical in cementing his legacy. For James Murdoch, his answers could demonstrate whether he should remain a top executive at News Corp. and eventually succeed his father as chief executive. Reaction was mixed to the performance of the two men who appeared Tuesday before a parliamentary committee to account for allegations of widespread phone hacking of celebrities and crime victims by reporters at the company's now shuttered News of the World tabloid.

FIFA President Joseph "Sepp" Blatter won reelection Wednesday the old-fashioned way — after his only opponent pulled out amid allegations of attempted bribery. That's not to say Blatter wouldn't have won anyway, had the election been held before the charges and subsequent suspension of his rival, Mohamed bin Hammam of Qatar, became known. It was that kind of week for FIFA, filled with accusations — including claims of Qatar's "buying" the 2022 World Cup — and leaving soccer fans with the reminder of a dirty, not-so-little secret: Corruption in sports has existed longer than most can remember.

It's easy to read a lot into "Mad Men" ( see accompanying piece ). The languid pace, the mouth-watering attention to detail, the archetypal characters and well-crafted dialogue conspire to create the air of a television classic begging to be deconstructed. Is it a personal journey in which our hero, Don Draper ( Jon Hamm), scours the cityscapes and deserts in search of meaning? Or is he the lens through which creator Matthew Weiner offers his interpretation of the socio-political shifts of the 1960s?

"Why would you make a documentary," kingpin lobbyist Jack Abramoff, a.k.a. the Man Who Bought Washington, asked filmmaker Alex Gibney. "No one watches documentaries. You should make an action movie," he advised, which, in the best possible sense, is what Gibney has done. "Casino Jack and the United States of Money" is a film that's always on the move, a smart, lively, thoroughly involving doc about a complex, critical subject. As previous credits such as "Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room" and the Oscar-winning "Taxi to the Dark Side" demonstrated, Gibney is as good as it gets at making complicated political material come alive on screen.

I am a Filipino senator passing through San Francisco on my way home. My attention was caught by your articles (Part A, Jan. 18-19) on the Bush Administration's supposed private message to President Corazon Aquino to get her house in order, as it were. One competing theory behind last month's coup is that certain forces out there would like to destabilize our government to ensure the extension of the military bases agreement between your country and ours. The high-profile visit by a proconsul does not weaken that premise.

A young mother was viciously executed in a local bank robbery by a new breed of criminal monsters who defiantly describe their predations as "mad dogging." If and when they are apprehended, the police must dance an exquisite, ACLU choreographed, legal minuet around these animals or risk violating their civil rights and winding up on trial themselves. No one is safe anymore, in our homes, on the streets, in our cars, or any place else, from becoming a statistic. The question we must ask ourselves is: What is our tolerance level of national degradation and acquiescence?

How did they ever get away with it? On Tuesday, the Justice Department released a batch of memos drafted in 2001 and 2002 by lawyers in the Bush administration's Office of Legal Counsel. Written mainly by John Yoo, then a deputy director in the office, they laid out the purported legal justifications for a theory of presidential power amounting to virtual dictatorship. Collectively, they declare that if the U.S.

On "Sordid Lives: The Series," the colorful folk in a certain Texas town are back in action after having won an avid following with the 1996 play and 2000 movie of the same name. For the 12-episode comedy, creator-writer-director Del Shores has reunited stars from his film including Bonnie Bedelia, Olivia Newton-John, Beth Grant and Leslie Jordan, who are joined by recruits Rue McClanahan and Caroline Rhea.